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Twins Strike Out On Ohtani

Shohei Ohtani is close to picking his first big league team. Unfortunately for Twins fans, that team won’t be in Minnesota. Ohtani, the Japanese two-way player, informed the Twins on Sunday that they had been eliminated from contention. Besides the Twins, the list of rejected teams included the Yankees, Red Sox, Athletics, Brewers, Pirates, Blue Jays, Diamondbacks and Mets.

Ohtani is meeting with teams in Los Angeles and his finalists include a lot of West Coast teams. This includes the Seattle Mariners, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres, Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Angels. Another team like the Chicago Cubs or Texas Rangers could sweep in and get him but he seems destined for the West Coast.

During the 2017 campaign, Ohtani fought through a quadriceps and ankle injury. However in 2016, he slashed .322/.416/.588 with 22 home runs. On the mound, he was even more impressive with a 1.86 ERA including 174 strikeouts in 140 innings.

The Twins struck out on Ohtani so now maybe the focus can turn to signing a different frontline starter like Ohtani’s countryman Yu Darvish.

Were you disappointed with the news? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

i wonder what we can trade for with our extra money to help those still in it give him a reasonabke offer. could we trade with SD for hand with international money and a prospect like tyler jay and kohl stewart.

Great Circle flight paths are neat to think about, unless you believe the Earth is flat.I remember flying from Seattle to Amsterdam and looking down at the far north of Canada.That was a surprisingly short flight.

What would he make, 2-3 flights per year?The difference is around a half a day of your life, sitting on a plane.Small potatoes.Maybe this guy isn't the guy I thought he was.All the plotting and planning, his pick of all 30 teams, and he limits himself because of sitting in an airplane for an hour or two?

Great Circle flight paths are neat to think about, unless you believe the Earth is flat.I remember flying from Seattle to Amsterdam and looking down at the far north of Canada.That was a surprisingly short flight.

What would he make, 2-3 flights per year?The difference is around a half a day of your life, sitting on a plane.Small potatoes.Maybe this guy isn't the guy I thought he was.All the plotting and planning, his pick of all 30 teams, and he limits himself because of sitting in an airplane for an hour or two?

Those calculations are erroneous.When you travel from Asia to U.S., the jet stream is behind you. So, you can travel to Hong Kong to CHicago in about 14 hours.But when you travel from the U.S. to Asia, the jet stream is against you.So, then it takes you 14 hours to travel from San Francisco to Hong Kong.

Those calculations are erroneous. When you travel from Asia to U.S., the jet stream is behind you. So, you can travel to Hong Kong to CHicago in about 14 hours. But when you travel from the U.S. to Asia, the jet stream is against you. So, then it takes you 14 hours to travel from San Francisco to Hong Kong.

It’s that to Hong Kong from SF but 10-11 to Tokyo. So what.

Who knows exactly why Ohtani didn’t choose Minnesota but as some said he wasn’t going to no matter what was done. That’s too bad for us and I truly believe Ohtani missed a good opportunity. I was hoping it would be otherwise but then there it is and so it goes. Time to move on. I’ve been a lot of places and I’d certainly give Minnesota consideration. Minneapolis is one of my favorite cities, along with San Francisco, but I’ve lived there and if you’ve never been, I can see how it wouldn’t stand up in someone’s mind being in ‘the middle of nowhere’ compared to places on the west coast. Perception is very difficult to overcome on paper. Too bad he didn’t at least consider visiting before saying, ‘Thanks but no thanks.’ I blame no one but Ohtani for that choice. He asked every team to do their due diligence, wish he had done the same before saying no, but again, there it is and so it goes. I can see how LA might appeal, but yuck, I’d hate to live there, especially in summer (unless you consider Santa Barbara to be part of the LA sprawl, then I could.) But San Diego, San Fran or Seattle? Yeah, I could live there, especially San Fran. It is on the top of my list of cities, but that’s me. And again, who knows specifically why it is what it is and would doubt location alone was a factor. But maybe it ended up being more important than initially reported. Now let’s get to work Twins; don’t skip a beat and get things done.

Honestly no idea why Otani requested pitches from all MLB teams if he was that dead-set on the west coast.I'd have to assume some teams are a bit frustrated over the wasted effort.

I'm fairly sure it wasn't him but his agents. Nice way to get a book on nearly all the teams for future neg. He likely has always had a small list of teams he'd go to but his agents are milking this for all it's worth, imo.

Also, I have to wonder if the reason Ohtani wanted a pitch from all teams was due to the fact he wants to be a two-way player and, therefore, wants to know exactly how a team plans on using him when he isn't pitching.

Side note: I don't think Molitor is the kind of guy who can be successful with a two-way player.

Honestly no idea why Otani requested pitches from all MLB teams if he was that dead-set on the west coast.I'd have to assume some teams are a bit frustrated over the wasted effort.

Says my kid every night that he has to do homework.

It was a courtesy to allow all teams in the offer, it wasn't a jerk move. And who knows, perhaps some team would have presented him with some persuasive information that otherwise wasn't available to he and his agent.

Not disappointed.As I have said before I do not like chasing players - I am an old fashioned develop him ourselves.If he turns out to be what is expected there will be another chance when he becomes a free agent.

In the meantime, get a coach - maybe our new extra pitching coach, to go and spend time with Romero and Gonsalves and get them primed for Spring Training and beyond.Invest in our own players.